Weird.

[ratherastory]

So the pingback_bot informs me that After the End made it onto the SPN News Letter. Which is really cool, but... I don't get it. Why that story and not others? I've been on there a couple of times (which, no, really, yay!), but I cannot for the life of me tell what sort of criteria they use.

Confused cat is confused.

Comments

[nwspaprtaxis.livejournal.com]

I don't get it either. I have no concept about their criteria. I made it once and was just baffled because honestly, I think I wrote other fics that were better than the one they selected...

*I got nothing*

[embroiderama]

Hmm, that's weird! They should get everything, and when they don't you should leave a note asking them to put your story in the next newsletter.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Hee!

I'm not really that motivated. Besides, with the amount I've been writing lately, they would get really sick of me, really fast. :)

I have something like eighty SPN stories, and I think three of them have made it into the newsletter. I'm happy for those stories, but I honestly don't know what made them newsletter-worthy rather than others. It's not even a gen vs slash thing, so I don't even know.

[morganoconner.livejournal.com]

It depends on which comms you're posting to. They only add stories from the comms that are specifically part of the newsletter (the community needs to contact them asking to be included). Because you write primarily gen, I'm assuming you don't normally post much to comms that they'd catch. My guess is they caught this one through sassy_otp.

;)

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Yeah - I agree. *head scratch* I had one for the newsletter for a vid once but not for any other vid links. I thought it might have been because they usually link to a community where I post my vids but this time they linked it to my actual journal. Could it be something to do with that maybe? If it's linked to a comm it doesn't pingback - if your personal journal it does???

*shrugs*

Who knows... (I like the ping back thingy though.. especially for recs.. *g*)

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Could be, although I seem to recall some of my gen stories getting on there. IDK.

It's nice that it was there, though!

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I luuurve the pinback-thingy for recs! It's probably a little sad just how happy it makes me when someone links to my stuff. :D

[nwspaprtaxis.livejournal.com]

I posted like 5 or so stories here and only one made it to the newsletter.....

[nwspaprtaxis.livejournal.com]

huh. That makes sense.... but I only post to hoodie_time and ohsam and stick to Gen. Although I do seem to recall that the one story that they rec'ed was my one and only slash...

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

I was told they pull the contents of the newsletter from specific coms they check, so I would guess it depends where you post your stuff.

[honeylocusttree.livejournal.com]

What is the SPN newsletter? Something of mine popped up there and I went "...huh." But I have no idea of what its relevance is. Enlighten me?

[embroiderama]

They have a watch list that's a whole lot of SPN comms and journals: spn_watcher. Really, they should catch most everything, and I'm not sure why they don't.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

When I cross-post at all, it's always to the same comms. morganoconner pointed out that it's probably because I posted this one to sassy_otp. Doesn't explain the gen stories, mind you.

[morganoconner.livejournal.com]

The only time my fics ever show up there is when I posted to deancastiel. And even when a comm is supposedly a part of the newsletter, a lot of them still get ignored, with no rhyme or reason as to why. (The comm I help run is supposed to be, but oddly enough, despite contacting them several times, they still manage to ignore it even though they assured us in the beginning it would be included.)

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Enh. I refuse to be fussed. It just happened today after not being included in the newsletter for nearly a year, if memory serves, so I was perplexed. But your explanation makes sense.

[nwspaprtaxis.livejournal.com]

Thank you for asking this question....

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

It's supposed to be a weekly round-up of everything that goes on in fandom, if I understood correctly.

[honeylocusttree.livejournal.com]

As a fandom n00b I get special dispensation. XD

[morganoconner.livejournal.com]

There's no rhyme or reason to the things they choose to include. In theory, a community mod is supposed to contact them and ask when they want their community or challenge included. The comm I help mod is supposedly a part of it, but they've never actually included it the way they said they would. Similarly, gabriel_bigbang was never listed as a challenge the way it was supposed to be. I've long since given up why they pay "special attention" to some things and outright ignore others. There's a reason I don't watch the newsletter. If you're not all about Wincest and J2 they barely give a crap.

[morganoconner.livejournal.com]

LOL the newsletter annoys me for several (hundred) reasons. Sorry I tend to get ranty about it. ;)

[embroiderama]

Wow, I'm not involved in the newsletter at all, but that's never been my experience. I don't write wincest, and it was a couple years I think before I started writing J2 but I've never had trouble getting linked. And I don't think I'm anybody in particular, so I just find it confusing why so many stories don't get linked. In any case, that really sucks!

[honeylocusttree.livejournal.com]

Ahh.

At the time I checked it out and it all seemed a bit...random. Looking it over now, some things seem a bit clearer. Although I'd say I'm none too concerned about it. (*Has a thing about 'exclusivity'*)

(The FAQ indicates they won't post without statement of pairing or gen-ness...and a rating. So that would certainly limit a lot of random fics that float around....)

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

It really does, but my fics always have the rating and characters (gen or pairing where applicable), so it's just confusing to me.

Poor newsletter. I think trying to round up all of the SPN fandom is just begging to fail.

[honeylocusttree.livejournal.com]

Amen.

Plus the one they linked of mine has neither rating nor pairing info. (Yes, I went back and checked. That doesn't make me anal. Really.)

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Oooh - Can I jump in here? I've never thought of the newsletter as "exclusive". Maybe I'm wrong, but I figure they link as much as they can find or see. If someone only posts to their journal I doubt that they would find it. In fact, I'm sure they wouldn't. But maybe I'm seeing it differently to others? I'm really curious about that...

It's an amazing resource... but, as I said, might be because I rely on it a bit to find stuff.... and it was one of the very first comms I friended on LJ..

?

ETA: also.. it's a daily round up. Sometimes it's HUGE! fandom is so productive. :)